I'm a serial dieter with a love of food and drink. If you want healthy, but really delicious food ideas that can feed the family follow my blog!

Tuesday, 26 July 2011

Fennel & Paprika Chicken with Roast Veg

There is a whole lotta love for chicken in our household at the moment. It's filling, healthy, a good source of protein and relatively low in ProPoints. I only buy free range chicken and I often buy corn fed free range chicken with its yellowy tinged skin. I get very excited (saddo) to spot a pack of organic or free range chicken in the reduced aisle in the supermarket and I snap it up pronto. When I get it home I carefully portion out the chicken breasts into varying weights to cater for all manner of dishes some of which will include kids dinners. We are also fond of chicken thighs and drumsticks and in every case I remove the skin before cooking.

Having talked about my love affair for chicken, having it 5 days out of 7 can get pretty tedious! Therefore I am always interested in finding new ways and new flavours to pair up with our everyday bird. This concoction is my own mix which has been perfected over the last couple of years. It's really tasty and the flavours penetrate the chicken really well.

You'll need for 2:

450g chicken thighs & drumsticks, skin removed, flesh slashed

2 tsp runny honey

4g fennel seeds, crushed (bizarrely there is 1 PP to 5g tsp of fennel seeds, so use just under a tsp!)

1 tsp olive oil

1 heaped tsp paprika

1 tsp lemon juice

seasoning

1 tsp white wine or cider vinegar

For the Roasted Vegetables:

1 potato 200g once peeled

2 small - medium courgettes, roughly chopped

half a butternut squash, peeled and cubed

Approx 10 cherry tomatoes

Half a punnet of chestnut mushrooms, roughly chopped

1 medium aubergine, chopped

1 tbsp olive oil

Dried thyme and rosemary

Prepare the chicken by mixing the marinade ingredients together in a shallow dish. Add a tiny amount of water if you need to thin it out a little. Toss the chicken ensuring it's fully coated. Cover and marinade for a good few hours

Prepare all the vegetables and throw into the biggest roasting dish you have. Season well and scatter over 1 tsp each of the herbs. Finally add the olive oil and tpss well with your hands to coat all the vegetables.

The vegetables need approx 45-50 minutes in a hot oven (200 fan) and the chicken needs 30 - 40 minutes depending on the size of the pieces. Ensure the chicken is cooked all the way through.